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39-407: The SBVR standard defines the vocabulary and rules for documenting the semantics of business vocabularies, business facts, and business rules; as well as an XMI schema for the interchange of business vocabularies and business rules among organizations and between software tools. SBVR allows the production of business vocabularies and rules; vocabulary plus rules constitute a shared domain model with

78-499: A language very close to them, but they usually are not able to formalize these concepts in a clear and unambiguous way. This implies a large effort in order to interpret and understand real meanings and concepts hidden among stakeholders' words. Special constraints on syntax or predefined linguistic structures can be used in order to overcome this problem, enabling natural language to well represent and formally define problems and requirements. The main purpose of natural language modelling

117-421: A less spacious field. Sometimes, in discoursing of men we imply (without expressing the limitation) that it is of men only under certain circumstances and conditions that we speak, as of civilized men, or of men in the vigour of life, or of men under some other condition or relation. Now, whatever may be the extent of the field within which all the objects of our discourse are found, that field may properly be termed

156-697: A metamodel and allows to instance it, in order to create different vocabularies and to define the related business rules; it is also possible to complete these models with data suitable to describe a specific organization. the SBVR approach provides means (i.e. mapping rules) to translate natural language artifacts into MOF-compliant artifacts; this allows to exploit all the advantages related to MOF (repository facilities, interchangeability, tools, ...). Several MDA-related OMG works in progress are expected to incorporate SBVR, including: The Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM) has been made compatible with SBVR, primarily by aligning

195-448: A model is an interpretation where each non-deontic formula evaluates to true, and the model is classified as: a permitted model if the p in each deontic formula (of the form Op) evaluates to true, otherwise the model is a forbidden model (though still a model). This approach removes any need to assign a truth value to expressions of the form Op. SBVR is for modeling in natural language. Based on linguistics and formal logic, SBVR provides

234-461: A new way to think about enterprise and its rules, in order to enable a complete business representation made by and for business people. Business rules can play an important role in defining business semantics: they can influence or guide behaviours and support policies, responding to environmental situations and events. Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) is the OMG implementation of

273-494: A vocabulary for conceptual modeling and captures expressions based on this vocabulary as formal logic structures. The SBVR vocabulary allows one to formally specify representations of concepts, definitions, instances, and rules of any knowledge domain in natural language, including tabular forms. These features make SBVR well suited for describing business domains and requirements for business processes and information systems to implement business models. People communicate facts, that

312-432: A way to capture specifications in natural language and represent them in formal logic so they can be machine-processed. Methodologies used in software development are typically applied only when a problem is already formulated and well described. The actual difficulty lies in the previous step, that is describing problems and expected functionalities. Stakeholders involved in software development can express their ideas using

351-787: A way to represent statements in controlled natural languages as logic structures called semantic formulations. SBVR is intended for expressing business vocabulary and business rules, and for specifying business requirements for information systems in natural language. SBVR models are declarative, not imperative or procedural. SBVR has the greatest expressivity of any OMG modeling language. The logics supported by SBVR are typed first order predicate logic with equality, restricted higher order logic (Henkin semantics), restricted deontic and alethic modal logic, set theory with bag comprehension, and mathematics. SBVR also includes projections, to support definitions and answers to queries, and questions, for formulating queries. Interpretation of SBVR semantic formulations

390-400: Is a combination of concepts and facts of what is possible, necessary, permissible, and obligatory in each possible world. The set of facts instantiates the conceptual schema by assertion to describe one possible world. A rule is a fact that asserts either a logical necessity or an obligation. Obligations are not necessarily satisfied by the facts; necessities are always satisfied. SBVR contains

429-498: Is a proposition taken to be true by the business. Population facts are restricted to elementary and existential facts. Constraints can be static or dynamic: e.g. a person’s marital status may change from single to married, but not from divorced to single Derivation of facts. Rules play a very important role in defining business semantics: they can influence or guide behaviours and support policies, responding to environmental situations and events. This means that rules represent

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468-499: Is almost nonexistent. This means exchanging files between UML modeling tools using XMI is rarely possible. One purpose of XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) is to enable easy interchange of metadata between UML-based modeling tools and MOF-based metadata repositories in distributed heterogeneous environments. XMI is also commonly used as the medium by which models are passed from modeling tools to software generation tools as part of model-driven engineering . Examples of XMI, and lists of

507-492: Is an Object Management Group (OMG) standard for exchanging metadata information via Extensible Markup Language (XML) . It can be used for any metadata whose metamodel can be expressed in Meta-Object Facility (MOF) , a platform-independent model (PIM). The most common use of XMI is as an interchange format for UML models, although it can also be used for serialization of models of other languages (metamodels). In

546-437: Is based on model theory. SBVR has a MOF model, so models can be structurally linked at the level of individual facts with other MDA models based on MOF. SBVR is aligned with Common Logic – published by ISO as ISO/IEC 24707:2007. SBVR captures business facts and business rules that may be expressed either informally or formally. Business rule expressions are formal only if they are expressed purely in terms of: fact types in

585-478: Is hence to make natural language suitable for conceptual modelling. The focus is on semantic aspects and shared meanings, while syntax is thought in a perspective based on formal logic mapping. Conceptualization and representation play fundamental roles in thinking, communicating, and modeling. There is a triad of 1) concepts in our minds, 2) real-world things conceptualized by concepts, and 3) representations of concepts that we can use to think and communicate about

624-504: Is quoted below. The concept, probably discovered independently by Boole in 1847, played a crucial role in his philosophy of logic especially in his principle of wholistic reference . Alfred North Whitehead cited Augustus De Morgan as identifying "that limited class of things which is the special subject of discourse on any particular occasion. Such a class was called by De Morgan, the Universe of Discourse." In every discourse, whether of

663-589: Is separate from expression; Fact Types (Verb Concepts) are built on Noun Concepts; Noun Concepts are represented by Terms; and Fact Types are represented by Fact Symbols (verb phrases). Rule statements are expressed using either alethic modality or deontic modality and require elements of modal logic as formalization. SBVR Structural Business Rules use two alethic modal operators : SBVR Operative Business Rules use two deontic modal operators : Structural business rules (static constraints) are treated as alethic necessities by default, where each state of

702-400: Is the fact is the unit of communication. The fact-oriented approach enables multidimensional categorization. Conceptual formalization describes a business domain, and is composed of 1) a conceptual schema (fact structure) and 2) a population of ground facts. A business domain ( universe of discourse ) comprises those aspects of the business that are of interest. The schema declares: A fact

741-430: Is usually identified in the preliminaries, so that there is no need in the further treatment to specify each time the range of the relevant variables. Many logicians distinguish, sometimes only tacitly, between the domain of a science and the universe of discourse of a formalization of the science . For example, in an interpretation of first-order logic , the domain of discourse is the set of individuals over which

780-662: The OMG vision of modeling, data is split into abstract models and concrete models. The abstract models represent the semantic information, whereas the concrete models represent visual diagrams. Abstract models are instances of arbitrary MOF-based modeling languages such as UML or SysML . For diagrams, the Diagram Interchange (DI, XMI[DI]) standard is used. There are currently several incompatibilities between different modeling tool vendor implementations of XMI, even between interchange of abstract model data. The usage of Diagram Interchange

819-521: The business rules approach . In June 2003 OMG issued the Business Semantics of Business Rule (BSBR) Request For Proposal, in order to create a standard to allow business people to define the policies and rules by which they run their business in their own language, in terms of the things they deal with in the business, and to capture those rules in a way that is clear, unambiguous and readily translatable into other representations. The SBVR proposal

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858-407: The quantifiers range. A proposition such as ∀ x ( x ≠ 2) is ambiguous if no domain of discourse has been identified. In one interpretation, the domain of discourse could be the set of real numbers ; in another interpretation, it could be the set of natural numbers . If the domain of discourse is the set of real numbers, the proposition is false, with x = √ 2 as counterexample; if

897-504: The 1.x series. The Diagram Definition OMG project is another alternative for metadata interchange, which can also express the layout and graphical representation. XMI is an international standard: Universe of discourse In the formal sciences , the domain of discourse , also called the universe of discourse , universal set , or simply universe , is the set of entities over which certain variables of interest in some formal treatment may range. The domain of discourse

936-594: The OMG are adopting SBVR. The Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE), an integrated project of the European Commission Framework Programme 6, has adopted SBVR as the basis for its Business Modeling Language. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is assessing SBVR for use in the Semantic Web, through the bridge provided by ODM. SBVR will extend the capability of MDA in all these areas. XML Metadata Interchange The XML Metadata Interchange ( XMI )

975-466: The SBVR Metamodel. SBVR and Knowledge Discovery Metamodel (KDM) are designed as two parts of a unique OMG Technology Stack for software analytics related to existing software systems. KDM defines an ontology related to software artifacts and thus provides an initial formalization of the information related to a software system. SBVR can be further used to formalize complex compliance rules related to

1014-481: The XML tags that make up XMI-formatted files, are available in the version 2.5.1 specification document. XMI integrates 4 industry standards: The integration of these 4 standards into XMI allows tool developers of distributed systems to share object models and other metadata. Several versions of XMI have been created: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0, 2.1, 2.1.1, 2.4, 2.4.1, 2.4.2. and 2 5.1. The 2.x versions are radically different from

1053-406: The concept and its corresponding real-world things. (Note that real-world things include both concrete things and representations of those concrete things as records and processes in operational information systems.) A conceptual model is a formal structure representing a possible world, comprising a conceptual schema and a set of facts that instantiate the conceptual schema. The conceptual schema

1092-493: The domain is the set of natural numbers, the proposition is true, since 2 is not the square of any natural number. The term "universe of discourse" generally refers to the collection of objects being discussed in a specific discourse . In model-theoretical semantics , a universe of discourse is the set of entities that a model is based on. The concept universe of discourse was used for the first time by George Boole (1854) on page 42 of his Laws of Thought . Boole's definition

1131-467: The fact model corresponds to a possible world. Pragmatically, the rule is understood to apply to all future states of the fact model, until the rule is revoked or changed. For the model theory, the necessity operator is omitted from the formula. Instead, the rule is merely tagged as a necessity. For compliance with Common Logic , such formulae can be treated as irregular expressions, with the necessity modal operator treated as an uninterpreted symbol. If

1170-722: The logic grounding of the ISO Common Logic specification (CL) referenced by ODM with the SBVR Logical Formulation of Semantics vocabulary. CL itself was modified specifically so it potentially can include the modal sentence requirements of SBVR. ODM provides a bridge to link SBVR to the Web Ontology Language for Services (OWL-S), Resource Description Framework Schema (RDFS), Unified Modeling Language (UML), Topic Map (TM), Entity Relationship Modeling (ER), Description Logic (DL), and CL. Other programs outside

1209-431: The mind conversing with its own thoughts, or of the individual in his folley with others, there is an assumed or expressed limit within which the subjects of its operation are confined. The most unfettered discourse is that in which the words we use are understood in the widest possible application, and for them the limits of discourse are co-extensive with those of the universe itself. But more usually we confine ourselves to

Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-429: The pre-declared schema for the business domain, certain logical/ mathematical operators, quantifiers etc. Formal rules are transformed into a logical formulation that is used for exchange with other rules-based software tools. Informal rules may be exchanged as un-interpreted comments. An approach to automatically generate SBVR business rules from natural language specification is presented in. SBVR specification defines

1287-484: The primary means by which an organization can direct its business, defining the operative way to reach its objectives and perform its actions. The rule-based approach aims to address two different kinds of users: The essence of the rule-based conceptual formalizations is that rules build on facts, and facts build on concepts as expressed by terms . This mantra is memorable, but a simplification since in SBVR: Meaning

1326-407: The rule includes exactly one deontic operator, e.g. O (obligation), and this is at the front, then the rule may be formalized as Op, where p is a first-order formula that is tagged as obligatory. In SBVR, this tag is assigned the informal semantics: it ought to be the case that p (for all future states of the fact model, until the constraint is revoked or changed). From a model-theoretic perspective,

1365-736: The same expressive power of standard ontological languages. SBVR allows multilingual development, since it is based on separation between symbols and their meaning. SBVR enables making business rules accessible to software tools, including tools that support the business experts in creating, finding, validating, and managing business rules, and tools that support the information technology experts in converting business rules into implementation rules for automated systems. SBVR uses OMG's Meta-Object Facility (MOF) to provide interchange capabilities MOF/XMI mapping rules, enable generating MOF-compliant models and define an XML schema. SBVR proposes Structured English as one of possibly many notations that can map to

1404-410: The software. Business rules represent the primary means by which an organization can direct its business, defining the operative way to reach its objectives and perform its actions. A rule-based approach to managing business and the information used by that business is a way of identifying and articulating the rules which define the structure and control the operation of an enterprise it represents

1443-600: Was ratified by the Domain Technical Committee (DTC), approved of the OMG Board of Directors, and SBVR finalization task force was launched to convert the proposal into ISO/OMG standard format and perform final editing prior to release as an OMG formal specification. In January 2008, the finalization phase was completed and the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR), Version 1.0 formal specification

1482-740: Was developed by the Business Rules Team, a consortium organized in August 2003 to respond to the BSBR RFP. In September 2005, The Business Modeling and Integration Task Force and the Architecture Board of the Object Management Group approved the proposal Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) to become a final adopted specification in response to the RFP. Later SBVR proposal

1521-494: Was released and is publicly available at the Catalog of OMG Business Strategy, Business Rules and Business Process Management Specifications web page. SBVR is a landmark for the OMG, the first OMG specification to incorporate the formal use of natural language in modeling and the first to provide explicitly a model of formal logic. Based on a fusion of linguistics, logic, and computer science, and two years in preparation, SBVR provides

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